Join professionals and community members from across the Bay Area for a day-long symposium. The 37th annual Symposium will examine patterns of child sexual abuse, explore promising prevention strategies, and seek best practices in both response and treatment. Whether this is your first or 37th year attending, we look forward to your participation at this year's event.

Click here to view materials for this event.

2019 Registration Rates - February 13 - April 2, 2019

Early Bird Pricing

​by March 10, 2019

$75

By Registration Deadline

​March 11 - April 2, 2019

​$90

​Groups of 10 to 24*

​by March 27, 2019

​$70

Groups of ​25-49​​*

​by March 27, 2019

​$60

Groups of ​​50 or more*

​by March 27, 2019

​$50

*Please contact CAPC Coordinator, Becky Manchester Aidlberg, at hrbecky@icloud.com for special group rate registration instructions. There are a limited number of scholarships available. Special pricing for students and interns.

In January 2018, Olympic Gymnast and Gold Medalist, Jordyn Wieber, came forward as a survivor of sexual abuse by former USA Gymnastics team doctor Larry Nassar, one of the most prolific sexual abusers in recorded history. Jordyn Wieber is now fighting to make gymnastics a safe sport again for young girls.

Please join us at the Symposium to hear what went wrong within USA Gymnastics to enable a predator to abuse so many, how Jordyn is healing, and what safeguards she believes need to be enacted to protect the next generation of young athletes.

Other Program Highlights:

Keynote Address by Victor Vieth, J.D., M.A. - Victor Vieth has trained thousands of child-protection professionals from all 50 states, two U.S. Territories, and 17 countries on numerous topics pertaining to child abuse investigations, prosecutions and prevention. Victor gained national recognition for his work in addressing child abuse in small communities as a prosecutor in rural Minnesota, and has been named to the President’s Honor Roll of the American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children. In 2012, Victor was awarded the Pro Humanitate Award from the North American Resource Center for Child Welfare.

Mr. Vieth has published countless articles related to the investigation, prosecution and prevention of child abuse and neglect. He is author of Unto the Third Generation, a bold initiative that outlines the necessary steps we must all take to eliminate child abuse in America in three generations, and On This Rock: A Call to Center the Christian Response to Child Abuse on the Life and Works of Jesus (Wiff & Stock 2018).

It’s imperative that all members of the multidisciplinary team understand the dynamics of child sexual abuse, the pressures to maintain secrecy, and risk factors for denial and recantation. In 1983, a seminal article by UCLA psychiatrist Roland Summit called The Child Sexual Abuse Accommodation Syndrome (CSAAS) described the plight of the sexually abused child in a disbelieving world. This article, and Summit himself, soon became mired in controversy, maligned and condemned for decades. Nevertheless, Summit's work inspired over thirty years of empirical study that has elucidated accommodation, delayed disclosure and retraction. In addition to reviewing the purpose, features and limits of the CSAAS, three major areas of research, which converge to help us understand the disclosure of child sexual abuse, will be highlighted: population surveys with adult survivors of child sexual abuse, studies of offenders, and studies with child victims of confirmed sexual abuse. The implications of these findings for all aspects of response, investigation, prosecution, and treatment will be addressed.

Also...

Lieutenant Jason Herr, SJPD, will courageously share how his personal experience as a victim of childhood sexual abuse drives his professional work.

Treatment of Complex Trauma presented by Julie Robbins, LCSW

Creating a Child Advocacy Center for Santa Clara County

In the Hall with a Perpetrator: Sexual Assault in Juvenile Detention Then and Now

Sexual Abuse: The Silent Risk Factor for CSEC and Juvenile Justice System Involvement

Resource Tables

Thank you to the California American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children (CAPSAC) for co-sponsoring this year's event.

Thanks to our amazing planning committee for their numerous contributions to the Symposium!